The running group

It was such a busy week last week, I don't know where to start. Major milestones included:

• I ran a mile for the first time (no walk breaks). It took me 12 minutes and it was hard. I wasn't planning on trying this, but my trainer thought it would be good to challenge myself. It was a challenge. But I did it.
• No Coca-Cola. And no nighttime snacking. And my afternoon snacks have been much healthier than a bowl full of Cheez-Its.
• I had my first run with my running group. Honestly, I'm not sure yet how I feel about this. I plan to stick with it, but I'm a little ambivalent. I actually did love getting up early, getting outside, being downtown, and doing something - that was very cool.
  

The blurry picture doesn't do justice to how beautiful it was as the sun rose on the city.
(Don't worry, it was an official walk break.)

Summary of the week:
Monday - Labor Day. I had the day off from work and the kids were off from school, so no gym for me.
Tuesday - Ran the track at the gym. Increased my intervals to 3 minutes running, 2 minutes walking, thereby increasing my total run time.
Wednesday - Played a little racquetball, and old favorite sport of mine. Still looking for a partner though.
Thursday - Challenge day. Ran 1 mile without stopping to walk. [whew] Then walked/ran for about 12 more minutes.
Friday - I was going to do an easy run day, but was late getting to the gym and just hit the racquetball around instead.
Saturday - Housecleaning. That was enough.
Sunday - Ran 2.1 miles with my running group, with walk breaks every 6 minutes (or, for me, more frequently.)

Initial thoughts on the running group:
I told you that I am feeling ambivalent about the running group, and here's why. To me, the running group felt less like a running group and more like me following the adept runners at a distance and slowing down the other adept runner who happened to get stuck with me when the other two took off together. I had envisioned the group run being closer to a literal 'group run.' Having never done this before, maybe my expectations were off? I do realize that everyone should not have to slow down for me or take more frequent walk breaks for me, which leaves me contemplating whether or not I should continue with the group.

Of the 4 of us who showed up on Sunday, 3 are experienced runners. There are at least 3 others who may join us in the future - 2 of these are also experienced runners. I really don't want to be pushed beyond my capacity, nor do I want an entire group to have to cater to me. What we did on Sunday was too much for my current level of experience. The trail run I had expected ended up including several trips up and down stairs and a fair amount of running on concrete.

I assure you I am not being a baby and I am not unaware of what I am capable of. I do know how to push myself. I also know my body and I know what my training has been so far and I know that I am not ready for the mileage and intervals this group is doing.

So I am a little unsure. I would hate to give it up altogether. It is highly unlikely that I would get up early to go running by myself, and even more unlikely that my trainer/husband would feel comfortable letting me go downtown to the trail alone in the dark. My thought is that I could continue to show up with these people, and then just do my own thing. If I lower my expectations for some kind of group bonding experience, that actually could work okay for me.

If you have any thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Clearly, I've never done this before.

Goals for this week:
Keep running. Increase my run time. Run another mile.